This past weekend I attended the World Fantasy Convention in Madison Wisconsin, where I’d been invited to speak on a couple of author panels and do a reading. Normally, I love going to these things because you meet a lot of great people and often get to spend some one-on-one time with the guest of honor. But I’m on a tight manuscript deadline at the moment, so I was worried about keeping up with the work while there. The one thing that kept me from totally stressing over it was knowing that WFC had garnered best-selling author Peter Straub for the event. Deadline or not, I wanted to meet this author!

Well, while driving up to Wisconsin, I started feeling a little funky, not quite myself. I blew it off to fatigue. By the time I reached the hotel in Madison, though, funky had turned to yuk, so I took a couple of Tylenol and crashed for the night. The next morning I woke only to discover that the sinus, flu, and swollen face gods had decided to pay me a visit during the night. My right eye was nearly swollen shut, and the rest of my face felt…lumpy. Here I was with only three hours to go before a panel and I looked like a mutated gerbil. And I was supposed to meet Straub today!

I rushed out and bought sinus tabs, stomach tabs, Benadryl, then downed the recommended doses with a Coke. I waited…and waited….and waited…and by the time I had to go downstairs for the panel, I still looked like a gerbil. Only now I was a woozy gerbil because of the Benadryl and sinus meds. Are we having fun yet?

Fortunately, the panel discussion went okay, thanks to an understanding moderator, who quickly stepped in whenever my brain clicked over to pause. Unfortunately, my brain was still mush when I went to hear Peter Straub’s keynote address.

Mr. Straub spoke for an hour, sharing how he got started in the business, how he dared to step out of the norm by writing stories that had changing narratives and chronology, and what it was like to collaborate with Stephen King. Although I was fascinated by what he had to say, I felt my head bobbing a few times throughout his presentation. At one point, I found myself startled awake by audience laughter, then heard Straub say, “Do you realize that women characters never urinate in books? (more laughter) It’s true! Writers have men urinating everywhere, a bathroom, behind a tree or a bush, but you never read anything about women.”

I’m sure I missed something between here and there, but I joined in the ensuing laughter, then remembered that I had a female character in Family Inheritance who urinated. How cool was that?

A few minutes later, when Mr. Straub wrapped up his presentation, I went to the front of the room to introduce myself. Before I could reach him, a man engaged his attention. I patiently waited my turn, all the while thinking…you know, Family Inheritance has changing narrative and chronology…

No sooner did I think that than the man who was talking to Straub leave, and I found myself face to face with the icon. I know I had a huge grin on my face, which probably made me look like a demented gerbil. You couldn’t tell it by Straub, though. He smiled, shook my hand, and asked me how I was enjoying the convention. I don’t even remember what I told the man. What I DO remember though, is sticking a hand into my book bag and pulling out a copy of FI. My intent was to associate the changing narratives and chronology in the book to his presentation. Instead, I thrust the book at Straub and in a Benadryl stupor said, “Uh…this is my first book, and I’d like to give you a copy….a woman pees in it.”

When I realized what I’d said, my jaw dropped, and I just blinked up at him. Straub blinked, too…then burst into a hearty laugh. He thanked me, took the book, and said (still laughing), “I’ll look forward to reading this.”

…but, short of using voice recognition software that mangles the English language, that would make it hard to write the book, the part I do enjoy. I’ve met and talked with a lot of writers in the past six years, and I deal with some awesome writers now, and I still haven’t met anyone who says, “Gee, I really like writing that synopsis. If only that’s all I had to do.”

If anyone reading this actually does enjoy the synopsis writing, let me know. But I’m fairly sure I’ll be met with a stony silence.

Because how the heck are you supposed to write a synopsis, when you don’t even KNOW these characters yet? Allison is actually the one who got me thinking about this, in a post she made to the rest of us msw-ers. How do you effectively write a synopsis, one that will sell a book, when you haven’t properly explored the characters?

The only way to explore the characters is to write the book.

And yet, as semi-established authors, we are expected to write the synopsis first. We often sell BOOKS based on synopses. In fact, most of us do. But delivering that book, when it can end up not even resembling the original idea, can be a nightmare.

This is one of the reasons–as I’ve tried to explain to unpublished writers–that the concerns, angsts, pressure and fear just GROWS once you sell. It’s one thing to write a book, then sit down and dissect it chapter by chapter until you have a good, clean synopsis. I’ve done that before, and I’ve taught other writers to do it.

Writing a synopsis AFTER a book is written is easy. This is familiar territory. This is like driving in daylight on a familiar level path, on a sunny day, with the top of your convertible down. Writing it before is sort of like driving at night with your lights off, on a winding mountain road, just after the tendrils of thick fog set in.

You’ve not been here before. There could be a stop sign missing, or a turn in the road you didn’t anticipate. The fog makes it hard to see three feet ahead. You have no landmarks, and you have no lights. Better to just stop and pull over and wait for daylight….

And the “synopsis first” gang even tell unpublished writers to write the synopsis first. Who ARE these people? Have they EVER written a book? I’ve never really met a first time author–myself included–who did a bangup job of writing a synopsis BEFORE the book. I’ll be the first to admit I am horrible at it. All the “writing” books advise you write the synopsis first, but most don’t do it. And for first time authors, can I just say, “Why should you?” You have to have the entire manuscript written before you can approach any agent or editor. Doesn’t it make more sense to chart the territory and THEN draw the map? We all KNOW what happens when people try to make maps of places they haven’t been….

Is this not what a synopsis is? A map of your manuscript?

If you have an idea, and if that idea is not properly explored, you can’t really know if the synopsis you are writing and trying to sell is what is going to happen, right?

Any writer knows that characters have a mind of their own, and they often take over stories and tell YOU what their storyline is. I have had minor characters attempt to take over and run a book. One even succeeded, so I had to give her her OWN book, so she would shut up. Of course, neither of this books sold, although they are both under consideration right now.

So, there’s my rant on writing a synopsis, delivered, because right now, I AM trying to write one based on a book that exists only in my head, with characters who have not yet told me all of their story, and who have some plans of their own in mind…..

The Monday-Murder-Chick (that’s me!) has donned her cape and is here to save you from all the talk of psycho killers and grisly murder plots. Because frankly, um, Allison, Natalie and Deb, are starting to scare me!

Karin would probably scare me if she’d stop tormenting us with her vacation stories. And just where has Karin hidden her Hot Cop List? Why isn’t she sharing that with us? We should know where all these hot cops are so we can do a little speeding…

Where was I? Hot Cops…ah! Heroes! Allison’s talk about how she comes up with plots for her books got me thinking about how I start a book. While there is murder and mayhem running around in the back of my mind, the place I start is with the hero (or heroine, we are not sexist here at Murder She Writes, unless of course, it will get us out of a speeding ticket.). I approach an idea from the view point the hero. What will drive this character to rise to heroism? What is in their past to make them vulnerable? What is the hero or heroine afraid of? What do they long for?

What is the worst thing that can happen to them? Why? And how can I make it worse? And when I do make it worse—will the character come through with a heroism streak they didn’t really know they had? Why? Because whatever the hero is going to do, whatever action he or she takes that is heroic, it has to cost them.

In my view, a hero is someone who rises to the occasion despite being afraid and knowing they will pay a painful price. Although the news is full of anti-heroes who get a sickening amount of face time, I’ll pick someone recently in the news to demonstrate what I mean: Rosa Parks. By all accounts that I have seen, Rosa Parks was an average, hardworking young black woman all those years ago when she chose to take a stand. I can well imagine that refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man was scary. She knew she’d be arrested, and any reasonable person would be afraid of that. But she believed being forced to do so was an injustice, and one day, she made a stand. There is no way she could have foreseen that she would become a touchstone for an entire civil rights movement. All she knew was that despite her fear and the price, she took a stand.

Now I’m not black and fighting for civil rights and my characters are fictional, but that kind of bravery that I’m looking for in my heroes… He or she is as flawed and human as any of us, but at some point, they make a choice. They come to the fork in the road and choose the right, but often harder, path. I have an innate curiosity about people who do that. The firefighter that runs into the burning building to save a life. The cop who puts his body between the shooter and the civilian. They are in the moment of high action, faced with a split second decision, a choice, and how they choose fascinates me.

I am more invested in the heroes of the books than the villains. As a writer, that forces me to develop the villain to make him a match for the hero. And that brings me to something a college creative writing teacher once told me—that I have romance in my soul. And I do. For once, I’m not talking about sexual/love romance, but a bigger romance. I believe in justice, in balance, in good winning out over evil, even though I know darn well people can be unfair, cruel and even murderous. That deep basic belief drives my need to create heroes, and read about heroes, who score one for the good guys, no matter the price. Although my dad died when I was 13 and I found out too quickly the world has too many anti-heroes—I still choose to believe in heroes.

According to an article in The Salt Lake Tribune, Seth Jeffs, the brother of FLDS Prophet Warren Jeffs–who is currently being sought by the FBI for all sorts of unsavory charges–was arrested Friday by sheriff’s deputies in Pueblo County, Colo., who were checking out a report by a citizen of a possible drunken driver.

The article said:

Officers stopped the suspicious vehicle on Interstate 25 near the city of Pueblo and found two occupants, driver Nathaniel Steed Allred, 27, and Jeffs, his passenger. According to the FBI affidavit, Allred told a deputy that Jeffs owned the vehicle and had paid him $5,000 to provide sexual services. Allred is a nephew of Seth and Warren Jeffs.

Allred and Jeffs were arrested on state charges of prostitution and solicitation for prostitution and then released with a summons to appear in court. In the meantime, deputies obtained a search warrant for the vehicle “based on the suspicious actions of the occupants.”

Inside they allegedly found approximately $140,000 in cash, seven cellular phones, several envelopes with prepaid credit cards and prepaid cellular phone cards and hundreds of other sealed envelopes, many addressed to “The Prophet” or “Warren Jeffs.” In addition, they discovered a glass donation jar with a photograph of Warren Jeffs attached and a label that said, “Pennies for the Prophet.”

Yes, you read that right. Seth Jeffs’s nephew was in the car with Jeffs, and told police his uncle had paid him for sex.

Yesterday over at the toberead blog, I posted a little thing about Random House making a deal with a production company to purchase film rights of Random House books, if available. As an author for Ballantine (an imprint of RH), I was of course intrigued. What author wouldn’t want their book made into a movie? The same author who says they “don’t care” if they hit the NYT list — one who lies.

One of the caveats is that they’re not looking at the mega bestsellers (like John Grisham whose books are already turned into blockbuster movies); they’re looking at other books — which I think bodes well for authors AND movie goers, for suspense and romance in particular. Jonathon Kellerman, one of my fave authors, writes for Ballantine and I can totally see Alex Delaware coming to life. And what about Tess Gerritsen . . . out of all her books, I’d love to see the most recent, VANISH, made into a movie. And as I said on the other blog, Julie Garwood‘s KILLJOY is my favorite of hers. And don’t forget Lisa Gardner . . . Bronwyn Jameson on the TBR blog pointed her out.

There are so many non-bestselling books (okay, all three of those authors have hit THE list, but I haven’t seen any of their books turned into movies . . . why, I have no idea) that have great characters and great stories . . . I can see them as movies.

But I’m a visual person. When I write, I “see” the scene. If I can’t visualize it, I can’t write it.

Last night I was working on a scene in THE KILL. My editor wanted more tension. Basically, it was too easy to catch the bad guy and we weren’t sufficiently scared for the heroine. The suggestion I received didn’t work. I sat my husband on the couch and said, “Okay, pretend you’re in the passenger seat of a stolen police cruiser and you’re holding a gun on me.”

“It’s awkward.”

“Right!” And I’m thinking, there’s NO WAY Olivia is going to be able to disarm the villain. She’s stuck.

Then it came to me. The solution. Something completely different than what I’d original written, what my editor suggested, and what had been running around my head. I stayed up until one in the morning pounding out the new scene, totally excited, because it worked and not only did it work, but I could picture the entire event unfolding . . . that’s how I KNEW it worked.

So I emailed my fabulous editor about the changes, and she called me all excited and said, “I love it. A little blood is always a good thing.”

Hee hee hee.

So, to get back to my original point . . . visual is good. I’d love to see some of the books I love made into movies, simply because I feel I’ve already seen them.

And, of course, I’d love to see my books made into movies . . . if I said I didn’t, I’d be lying.

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Bio:

Allison Brennan

Allison Brennan is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of nearly three dozen romantic thrillers and mysteries, including the Lucy Kincaid series and the Max Revere series. She lives in Northern California with her husband, five children, and assorted pets.